Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, taking questions from the audience at his company's SharePoint conference in Seattle this morning, was asked how Google Sites competes with Microsoft's new SharePoint Services. It's an issue I covered in this story.

He lauded Google's Internet search, but said its online offerings that compete with Microsoft's own productivity applications such as Office and SharePoint don't have the richness or responsiveness that businesses demand. He also suggested that Google has been able to make big marketing splashes for its Apps products, but has had little market penetration.

"The day they announce them is their best day," Gates said, adding, "I might be biased."

Asked who he's backing for president, Gates pointed people to www.one.org, an effort he has helped fund to get candidates to state their positions on global healh.

"I'm not making any particular public comment beyond that," Gates said.

He was also asked whether a Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo would have any impact on SharePoint. His answer, not really. The acquisition proposal reflects how serious the company is about consumer search, he said.